Open format of the track data file allowing users to integrate customized scalar
data into the track file and visualize and analyze it. Save and restore scenes in XML style scene file.

Statistical scalar analysis of tracks and ROIs.

Synchronized real-time multiple dataset analysis and display allowing time-point and/or subject
comparison. Synchronized analysis and display on same dataset can also be performed
in real-time remotely over the network.

We are pleased to announce the release of TrackVis 0.6.1 and Diffusion Toolkit 0.6.4. This release fixed a fair amount of bugs and also provides better support for newer Linux desktops. There are a few new functions in TrackVis 0.6.1, such as visualizing ODF data generated by DTK and also exporting scene with all correspond data files.

We are pleased to announce the release of TrackVis 0.6. This release fixed a lot of bugs and also improved stability. It also provides better support for newer operating systems, such as native 64-bit Windows support, so that large track data can be loaded on Windows. We have also stopped maintaining 32-bit binary for Mac OS X and Linux. So from now there will only be 64-bit support for Mac OS X and Linux.

This is mainly a bug fix release, resolving issues on loading scenes and ROI files. Also this release should fix the issues on the new Mac OS X Lion where license window kept popping up and saving files randomly crashed.

Also included in this release is a command-line tool called “track_vis”. To say it is the command-line version of TrackVis is a little bit exaggerating. It was really just a prototype before TrackVis was built. It has not been updated for a long time and is only maintained for runnability. But there is some value of it in that it can be put in a script for batch data processing and screen captures. It can actually be very helpful in some case. So we decided to put it out there. The only documentation for it is its massive in-program help text. Just run “track_vis” without any flags, you will see it.

The code to handle gradient table has been rewritten in Diffusion Toolkit 0.6 to make it more flexible. Now there are a few different ways to specify gradient table (NOTE: these changes only apply to DTI reconstruction for now):

The old way. No b0 (0, 0, 0) vector included in the table. Program will assume all the b0’s are on top of the image list. You need to enter the number of b0’s correctly.

Put b0 (0, 0, 0) vectors in the table, anywhere. Note once program detects there is b0 vector in the table, it will automatically count its number. You need to make sure the number and the position of each match the input data. For example, if your data has 2 b0’s at the top of the image list, you can not just put one b0 (0, 0, 0) vector at the top of the table, you need to put two in there.

Diffusion Toolkit 0.6 includes a new command-line tool called track_merge, which merges multiple track files into one so that one can view them in TrackVis at the same time. Usage is quite simple:

track_merge file1 file2 ... fileN output_file

Requirement for this to work is obvious: all the input track files must have the same geometry information in the header.

A nice thing track_merge does behind the scene is when it merges multiple track files, it does not simply add them. An id type property tag is added to each track in the newly merged file, with each unique id representing where the track was originally from. When the merged file is loaded in TrackVis, a property filter will show up in Track Property panel. Users can adjust that to distinguish and sub-group tracks by its id (origin).

We are pleased to announce the release of TrackVis 0.5.1 and Diffusion Toolkit 0.6. A brief list of the changes can be found in Release Notes section. Download now or simply select the Update menu in the program to get the latest update.

TrackVis 0.5.1 is mainly a bug fix release containing a few minor improvements. Diffusion Toolkit 0.6 however has a couple of new features that may help you process DTI data more easily. I will discuss the details in separate posts shortly.